One of the first films I remember seeing in a theater was a foreign film, a science fiction film and a newspaper film all rolled into one, a trifecta of interests that are still central to my life today.

It was called "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (1962), and I saw it at the Ritz Theatre - it may have been the Villa by then - on W. Villard Ave with some kid from my neighborhood and his older sister. I was 11.

It was cautionary , quasi political commentary about the end of the world; nuclear testing threw the planet off its axis and toward the sun, causing temperatures to rise and water to become scarce.

"Is it fiction or is it fact," asked the trailer, adding; "It will burn itself into your memory."

The characters were a "one-time ace reporter striving to make a comeback in life and love," and "the science editor who unearthed the deadly facts," played by Leo McKern, who later starred with the Beatles in "Help."

About the same time, I remember being terrified by a late night TV showing of "The Indestructible Man," from1956, a clunky B-grade thriller with Lon Chaney Jr., as "the man who couldn't be killed." A "spawn of science he begins an irresistible campaign of vengeance." It's weird finale atop an electric power station, for some reason, stays with me today.

This reverie was triggered by the remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still," opening Friday, with Keanu Reeves as an alien who comes to earth to restore peace with help from a giant robot. The original was released in 1951, the year I was born. "Look (magazine) "calls it the best of the science fiction movies," and newsman Drew Pearson narrates the trailer.

Yet it's hard to imagine how all the digital effects in the world can improve on the still timely original, and its portrait of a world dealing with the threat of nuclear age self destruction.

Take a look at its original trailer below, along with original trailers for "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" and "The Indestructible Man." And for a bonus, I tossed in the trailer for my guilty pleasure - "Zardoz," a psychedlic "Barbarella"-like morality tale (1974) by John Boorman, with Sean Connery as a savage who murders at the instructions of a godlike creature, and whose violence disrupts a group of immortals.

Now there's a movie begging for a remake!

"The Day the Earth Stood Still"

"The Indestructible Man"

"The Day the Earth Caught Fire"

"Zardoz"

About Duane Dudek

Duane Dudek is a reporter and columnist covering radio and television. He also reviews movies.